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Entering ‘The Bear Trap’ on the Champion Course at PGA National, home to the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic.Courtesy of PGA National Resort & Spa

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — These guys are scary good.

And when the PGA Tour’s biggest stars are scared of a stretch of golf holes, the rest of us should be … well … terrified.

In the sometimes twisted pursuit of pars (or, better yet, birdies), that is part of the appeal.

Defending champion Justin Thomas, major machine Brooks Koepka, fan favourite Rickie Fowler and their smooth-swinging pals return this week to the Champion Course at PGA National Resort & Spa, home to the Honda Classic and famous for a three-hole heartbreaker/memory-maker known as ‘The Bear Trap.’

If it can bite the best, look out …

As Rory Sabbatini, a past winner at PGA National, put it: “There’s a pretty good reason they call it ‘The Bear Trap’ because if it doesn’t get you one way, it’s going to get you another.”

Indeed, those back-to-back-to-back back-breakers — Nos. 15 to 17 on the scorecard — can spoil a good round in a flash.

Or in a splash.

PGA National Resort & Spa is located in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., an hour drive from the airport in Fort Lauderdale — also easily accessible from the runways in Miami — and about the same travel time from where the NHL’s Florida Panthers play their home games at BB&T Center.

The tee-sheet is not open for daily-fee action, but stay-and-play guests at this sun-soaked retreat have access to all four championship-length layouts on this picturesque property, a lineup that also includes the Fazio, Palmer and Squire Courses. (A fifth option, the Estates Course, is not far away.)

Hole 9 on the Champion Course at PGA National.Courtesy photo

No offence to the others, but it’s the Champion Course, with a history of hosting biggies both before and after a significant re-design by legendary Jack Nicklaus in 2002, that makes this a bucket-list destination for any club-toting tourist.

The entrance to The Bear Trap is marked by a statue of a … duh … bear — the PGA Tour pros might be the only ones not stopping to snap a selfie for Facebook or Instagram — and a plaque on which Nicklaus declares “it should be won or lost right here.”

If you don’t lose any golf balls, consider it a win.

After all, tour mainstay Graeme McDowell has characterized this much-hyped hat-trick as “probably some of the toughest three holes in world golf, really,” and the statistics from last season back that up.

Even for those who can bomb it like Bubba, it’s not distance that gives ‘The Bear Trap’ its claws. Instead, it’s all about accuracy, club selection and trying to calm your nerves in what is often a swirling wind.

Hole 15 on the Champion Course at PGA National.Courtesy photo

The green at No. 15 clings to the edge of a pond, bad news if your tee-ball falls short or strays right. You can chicken out (like I did) and aim left, but that will leave a knee-knocking sand-shot as you try to salvage par.

Despite measuring a ho-hum 179 yards for the pros, this ranked as the ninth-hardest hole on the PGA Tour in 2018.

Next up is No. 16, a Par-4 that doglegs to the right over more wet stuff.

On this day, my playing partner couldn’t have placed his drive much better. And then? Into what our forecaddie guesstimated was a three-club wind, he plopped his approach in the drink.

Fowler has suggested that No. 17 — spanning between 111-190 yards but a heart-thumper from any distance as you try to thread the needle between water and a back bunker — might be the toughest Par-3 on their circuit.

In 2018, it was.

With an average score of 0.553 strokes above par, it was the third-hardest hole at any tour stop last season. Only a pair of 500-and-some-yard Par-4s at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills caused more trouble for the top guns.

In four spins at the Honda Classic, Rory McIlroy mixed a birdie, a par, a triple bogey and a quad on No. 17.

Perfect.

Because if your first attempt — and maybe your mulligan, too — turns out to be alligator bait, well, that’s why you haven’t quit your day-job.

But if you manage to find the short stuff and then drain the putt, it’s a birdie you will be boasting about for a long, long time.

Hole 17 on the Champion Course at PGA National.Courtesy photo

“I don’t care if they make golf balls that go for a thousand yards — ‘The Bear Trap’ will stand the test no matter what the equipment is,” Nicklaus once said. “It’s not about length, it’s about precision. It’s about guts. It’s all about what do you have in your chest that you can finish those holes.”

With Thomas shooting this week to defend his tournament title, the Champion Course has a slightly different look — the marquee layout was closed for several months to rebuild and re-surface the green complexes, with an eye on returning the size and shape of the dance-floors to what the Golden Bear initially designed.

In a dozen previous editions of the Honda Classic at PGA National, the list of winners also includes the starry likes of Fowler, McIlroy, Ernie Els and Adam Scott.

There have been many more of trophy presentations under these palms.

Nicklaus captained the Americans — led by Ben Crenshaw and Lanny Wadkins — to a Ryder Cup victory here in 1983, while Larry Nelson collected his third major when he prevailed in a playoff scorcher at the 1987 PGA Championship.

During a lengthy run as site of the Senior PGA Championship, several of the biggest names in the history of the sport triumphed on this splashy setup — Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, etc., etc.

Those are the success stories. When it comes to PGA National, your divot-digging idols likely have some horrors to share, too.

Hole 16 on the Champion Course at PGA National.Courtesy photo

Prior to winning the Honda Classic last February, Thomas reminisced about his rookie appearance at the home of ‘The Bear Trap,’ telling reporters that he “dropped maybe nine times in two days,” en route to missing the cut.

“I hit it in so many hazards, it was unbelievable,” Thomas recalled.

Perhaps that’s where us amateurs have an edge — we’re accustomed to emptying two or three sleeves of balls during our rounds.

And having a blast while doing so.

If you crave the sort of challenge that leaves the best of the best a little shaky in their soft spikes, the Champion Course at PGA National is must-play material.

With water hazards on nearly every hole, I had already bid farewell to three Titleists — and spotted one wee gator — before I reached the notorious stretch known as ‘The Bear Trap.’

Gulp.

“I fear those holes — there’s no doubt about that,” has admitted Padraig Harrington, a three-time major champion and winner of the 2015 Honda Classic. “My strategy has never changed. You know, first goal is not to hit in the water. The second goal is not to hit it in the bunkers. And then hopefully, you hit on the green between them.”

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